UPDATE: Man Charged in Attack With Ax

A 33-year-old Cottage Hills, Ill., man was charged Monday after allegedly using an ax to attack a woman Sunday at her Villa Ridge home.

Jason F. Smith is charged in Franklin County Associate Circuit Court with first-degree felony assault. He is being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office reported that the victim, Cheryl Gettys, 37, Villa Ridge, received cuts to her her face, arms and torso during the attack at her apartment in building 996 in Osage Village Court.

Gettys is expected to survive, authorities said.

Deputies were called to the complex about 1:20 a.m. in response to reports of a woman screaming in one of the apartments.

When they arrived, they found a couch on fire in the woman’s apartment. Officers attempted to extinguish the blaze while looking for the suspect and victim, but no one was in the apartment. They used a fire extinguisher to smother the fire, but it rekindled while deputies were trying to locate the victim and evacuate the building.

While evacuating the building they located Smith and took him into custody.

They later found the victim at a neighbor’s apartment where she went for help. She told deputies that Smith, an acquaintance of a friend of hers, went home with her from a bar. At one point he became violent and began attacking her with the ax. She said she started screaming and managed to break away and escape through a window.

Gettys was taken by ambulance to Mercy Hospital Washington for treatment of her wounds.